New member proposed for Swedish Match Board of Directors

At the upcoming Annual General Meeting on May 2, 2011, the Nominating Committee of Swedish Match AB will propose the election of Robert F. Sharpe to the Swedish Match Board of Directors.

Robert F. Sharpe is currently Senior Advisor to the Chief Executive at ConAgra Foods, Inc., and was previously President, Commercial Foods, and Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer at ConAgra Foods.

Prior to his work at ConAgra Foods, Sharpe was a partner at Brunswick Group with a focus on communications with the financial media. Prior to that, he was Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary at PepsiCo, Inc and he has also worked at RJR Nabisco and Tyco International. Sharpe is currently a member of the Board of Directors at Ameriprise Financial, Inc. He holds a JD degree from Wake Forest University (1978), a BA degree from Depauw University (1975), and a BSE degree from Purdue University (1974).The Nominating Committee has made particular note of Sharpe’s broad experience, covering the areas of Communications, Legal Affairs, Government Affairs, as well as his P&L responsibility for a 4.5 BUSD commercial foods business.

The current Swedish Match Board member Charles A. Blixt has announced that, for family reasons, he is not available for re-election at the upcoming Annual General Meeting.
 
Consequently, the Nominating Committee will propose re-election of the present Board members Conny Karlsson, Andrew Cripps, Karen Guerra and Meg Tivéus. New election is proposed of Robert F. Sharpe and Joakim Westh. As previously announced, the Nominating Committee will propose Conny Karlsson as the Chairman of the Board and Andrew Cripps as the deputy Chairman of the Board.

The Nominating Committee in Swedish Match AB consists of Conny Karlsson (Chairman of the Board), Andy Brown (Cedar Rock Capital), Mads Eg Gensmann (Parvus Asset Management), William Lock (Morgan Stanley Investment Management), and Anders Oscarsson (AMF & AMF Funds). Mads Eg Gensmann is the Chairman of the Committee.

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The character of this information is such that it shall be disclosed by Swedish Match AB (publ) in accordance with the Swedish Securities Markets Act. The information was disclosed to the media on 21 March, 2011 at 09:00 a.m. (CET).
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Swedish Match develops, manufactures and sells market-leading brands in product areas Snus and snuff, Other tobacco products (US mass market cigars and chewing tobacco) and Lights. The Group sells products across the globe, with production units in seven countries. The Group’s global operations generated comparable sales of 11,222 MSEK for the twelve month period ending December 31, 2010. Comparable sales exclude businesses transferred to STG. The Swedish Match share is listed on the NASDAQ OMX Stockholm (SWMA).
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Swedish Match AB (publ), Box 7179, SE-103 88 Stockholm
Visiting address: Västra Trädgårdsgatan 15, Telephone: +46 8 658 02 00
Corporate Identity Number: 556015-0756
www.swedishmatch.com

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